Imperium Offtopicum XIV
Imperium Offtopicum XIV, abbreviated IOT XIV and IOT 14, is an installment in the "original" Imperium Offtopicum line created by Robert Can't and released Christmas Day 2013. Conceived as a spiritual successor to Imperium Offtopicum IV, the game reuses many of its predecessor's rules and draws some elements of inspiration from The Aftermath. The game was immensely successful and rekindled an interest in roleplay-based rulesets from the early titles. It was not without controversy, however, suffering two GM-imposed hiatuses from turns 13–14 and 15–16, and a month-long break in August while Robert was on vacation. On 7 September 2014, Robert abruptly cancelled the pending update and terminated the game, citing frustration over "problem players". Game mechanics The game begins in 2104 with each turn representing a three-month season, the first update taking place in March. Updates are not fixed but generally occur Tuesday–Wednesday weekly following a brief orders lock. The game initially featured separate statistics for Economy, Military, Political Strength, and Eco-Damage, which served as a general standard for comparing national rankings and were adjusted mainly through roleplay. Robert has admitted that these numbers were essentially made up and not always adjusted appropriately, but deviating too far from the posted norm could result in unforeseen blowback. Statistics were abolished following the second hiatus (Turn 16). Territory IOT XIV reuses the regional world map from IOT IV. New nations can claim up to eight territories, and up to four contiguous provinces in subsequent turns; "microstates" (single-pixel regions) are worth half a point, and "large" territories cost three. Non-contiguous regions have a cost increase of 1 that is waived when a "colony" of 12 territories is established. Combat Combat is conducted through war plans to the GM; results incorporate a degree of randomness, but are determined primarily by common sense at the GM's discretion. Shame Points Originally introduced as a way of encouraging regular submission of orders, Shame Points have expanded into a means of tracking player decorum. Five points heralds an official warning, and ten points results in a player's removal from the game. Following the removal of the stats sheet, Shame Points were reset and instead counted absenteeism in the United Nations. Storyline Timeline}} ''Jerusalem Noël'' IOT XIV begins on the premise of the game itself not existing, leading the player base to rise to positions of actual political power, sparking an international catastrophe. A long string of vicious wars that began in the 2030s left the majority of the world dead. The crisis started with the destruction of New York by a terrorist group and a resulting war between the USA and United Europe. Some time during the "8 Minute War" an effort was made to eradicate the population of South America; within the game the effects of this are still felt as the ground of Argentina and Coastal Brazil is poisoned and grey. Nearly all major cities were destroyed and in total 11 billion lives were lost. The game proper begins in the year 2104 as surviving nations begin to reorganize in the shadow of peak oil. Due to the nigh-total collapse of the ecosystem, the majority of the human food supply depends on Bulk-Prod algae blocks. Setting specifics were revealed in parts during the course of the game, and territorial "dead zones" were demarcated beginning Turn 12. Vietnam The game's first major conflict arose in 2105 when Imperial Japan attacked a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Vietnam, leading to a short but bitter war that soon escalated into a regional crisis. The war witnessed rampant atrocities, including the massacre of Hanoi and atomic bombing of Cairo; Japan was defeated in 2106 after sabotage by Indonesia caused mass depopulation, sparking a civil war and the country's collapse. Winter War In the winter of 2105–6, confusion over a chemical weapons programme led the Pan-American Union to declare war on the Northwestern American Union. The resulting campaign netted slow and costly gains to the PAU, destroying Texarkana's international reputation in the process and provoking declarations of war by the United Arab Republic and German Empire, resulting in a broader cold war that lasted to the end of the game. Mounting domestic and foreign criticism over the original casus belli and the government's violation of a 2107 cease-fire eroded public support for the government, and by the end of 2113 the Union fractured. France One of the game's most salient features was the elaboration of Omega124's meme of fourth-wave feminism through the Women's Republic of France, whose politics were caught in a tug-of-war between "moderate" feminists and misandrist militants attempting to export the gender-revolutionary discourse through force. Tensions reached a flashpoint in 2106 when a terrorist organization destroyed the presidential residence and the radical celebrity Jeannette Hiver seized interim control of the government through a populist coup. While war was averted with Germany after President Pettigrew emerged from hiding, Feminist centrism never truly recovered and the Venus Party steadily gained clout over the ensuing years. 2107–2112 interlude On Turn 13, Robert voiced tentative plans to retire the game over mounting criticism, but player lobbying convinced him to stick it out. In a bid to both decompress and relieve in-game tension, he declared the timeline would fast-forward five years and asked for players to submit general objectives for that interval. In addition to rounding out territorial expansion, the time-skip resulted in: * Reorganization of the African Federation and construction of the Cape to Cairo Railway, creating several NPC states along the route; * The Gangnam Republic and Union of China merging into the Greater East Asian Republic; * Development of a transcontinental highway system linking the Platonic Republic, Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia, the United Arab Republic, Indo-Persia, Australian India, and GEAR, with subsequent extension into Germany; * The Oceanic Empire reduced to a rump state after overly-ambitious claims provoked a joint invasion by Australia, GEAR, and the Pan-American Union; * Indonesia rupturing into a four-month civil war that ended with fourth-wave feminists taking control of the country; * Laos secretly betraying UNVIFOR to annex Vietnam. Game statistics were reworked into "national focus" that could be directed toward territorial expansion, public education, scientific projects, espionage, civil engineering, ecological restoration, and humanitarian missions. Consistent investment in a focus increased its per-turn effect, while failing to specify a focus increased Shame Points. Robert later stated the national focus system was a supplement for players unwilling/unable to invest in proper roleplay. A new demographic was introduced tracking non-human population, subclassed between player-identified races and Kravyads. The United Nations was reinstated following its abrupt and controversial dissolution the previous turn, although initial membership was 'opt-in' and several previous member states did not return. Accompanying update posts were 'top five' lists by various UN organizations concerning domestic criteria; these became the only statistical reference points after the original stats sheet and National Focus were abolished on Turn 16. Indonesian War Almost immediately after the game resumed on Turn 14, christos200, now playing as Thailand, began mobilizing against the Feminist regime in Indonesia. After the Thai navy instigated a blockade, Yogyakarta declared a global food embargo, prompting Malta to join against Indonesia. The invasion was highly divisive internationally: while Thailand's claim to be restoring critical food supplies initially attracted support, this soon evaporated under arguments that the Thai blockade had the same result as the embargo, and upon Omega124's return to the game France declared it would restore the supply chain to noncombatants. A joint Anglo–French expedition halted the invaders and, after the entire Indonesian government was killed in an unclear sequence of events, assumed responsibility for the country. Although the coalition ultimately secured peace with Malta and forced Indonesia to withdraw, Bangkok-backed rebels refused to demobilize, and after foreign forces withdrew declared independence as the Democratic Republic of Indonesia. This led to a fight in chat between Robert and the coalition players that resulted in him cancelling the game. Eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia Soviet invasion of Greece|Soviet invasion of Anatolia Invasion of Anatolia}} After Sonereal's Turn 0 war against the Pirate Coalition, Ailedhoo restarted as the Platonic Republic, provoking a near-constant egotistical competition with Mathalamus' Roman Empire that twice nearly spiralled into outright war. Both countries quickly earned reputations as regional destabilizers: Greece for its brinkmanship and pig-headed diplomacy, Rome for a fickle leader and policy waffling. In the aftermath of Operation Devil-Fish both countries suffered drastic upheavals: the death of Roman emperor Andreas led the country to splinter, while the devastation to Greece's security staff spurred the rise of the radical People's Militia. Hoping to restart as a Militia-led Libya, Ailedhoo began deliberately sabotaging Greece's domestic situation, and by the end of 2105 the country was in a state of virtual civil war. In response, Russia announced it was executing a unilateral "peacekeeping" mission before Greece imploded completely. The Russian army invaded Greece in 2106, arresting the Philosopher Council and launching a crackdown on a Militia splinter cell led by Usman Almasi, at the same time the United Arab Republic manoeuvred to break out Libya as an independent state. During this time, mutual antagonism rapidly eroded Russo–Roman relations. While Texarkana had maintained a defensive pact with Rome that prevented Soviet attempts to incite a diplomatic incident over Crimea, this was effectively annulled after Rome pledged support to Almasi in opposition to the Russian takeover. Following the time-skip, Russia formally declared war; worried by Soviet expansionism after Moscow betrayed its own Greek peace plan and annexed the territories, Germany and the UAR declared war in defence of the Roman splinter states. Despite declaring total war in 2113, the Roman government fled to Germany that fall, surrendering to the Soviets and attempting to sell the crown to Moscow; after literally being slapped silly by German empress Claudia, Basil instead sold the crown to Germany and settled in Berlin, rather than the Pan-American Union as he had originally intended. Russia subsequently declared occupied Turkey the Roman Soviet Socialist Republic, but the remaining combatants dismissed it as a Soviet puppet state and vowed to continue the war. Criticism Although Imperium Offtopicum XIV was immensely popular on release and lasted over eight months, facets of Robert's management were repeatedly called into question. Information on some end-of-turn results discussed in chat did not translate into the update proper, with events such as the Japanese collapse, Greek civil war, and assassination of the Indonesian leadership being described in media res or after the fact with little-to-no establishing context. Likewise, the general setting was revealed in sporadic fragments, sometimes retconning major factors outright, such as Indonesia's virtual monopoly on the global food supply. National strengths appeared to be distributed arbitrarily and ad-hoc, with 'antagonist' nations such as Japan benefitting from high starting military strength relative to their neighbours. As the game progressed, several players thought they were being disproportionately targeted for negative random events, with both Civ'ed and Omega124 briefly resigning in frustration. Similarly, administration of some non-player countries was considered inconsistent and/or self-deprecating, with foreign policy rarely-if-ever publicly elaborated: some former player countries (such as Ireland and Monaco) were drastically downsized and/or rendered patsies to their neighbours, whereas Poland retained both territorial and legislative integrity, and even expanded its borders during the time-skip. In particular, Indonesia's feeble performance in the war with Thailand was heavily criticized given Reus had established it as a hi-tech superpower, while the global food embargo was derided as politically suicidal. On Turn 13, Robert abruptly declared the United Nations disbanded despite his own previous attempts to encourage its use, claiming that because several recent resolutions had not been voted upon by an active majority of the participants, their adoption was "powergaming", going so far as to claim that the General Assembly itself "never technically existed because it never managed to create a charter."http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13140340&postcount=2499 Thorvald of Lym protested, stating Robert had never raised this as an issue hitherto, nor had he shown any serious interest in the UN's internal mechanics. (The auxiliary social group had originally been created by Sonereal.) Robert used the UN's dissolution to justify the disbandment of UNVIFOR and Laos annexing the country, as well as stymieing UNJARMIS until after the time-skip despite its incorporation soon after Japan's collapse in 2106. For his part, Robert criticized "problem players" and what he claimed were sore losers hounding him over personal interpretations of turn results. Although he originally included statistics as an appeal to certain play styles, he did not expect what were effectively made-up numbers to become the fulcrum of those players' behaviour, and disbanded the system over frustration with min-maxers. The game was also plagued by decorum issues, including sustained harassment of KaiserElectric by Sonereal in the chatroom, and a mini-hiatus occurred during Turn 15 as Robert again mused killing the game. He later confessed in debriefing that he underestimated the expectations of a pure-narrative game, though he stands by all but one of his controversial decisions. On September 7, Robert posted a passive-aggressive rant explaining his decision to end the game, and requesting the board moderator to lock the thread.http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=13438906#post13438906 Reception today is mixed, with IOT XIV praised for its longevity and immersion, although some players believe Robert's management was at times directly detrimental to its cohesion. Trivia * The game's initial point of departure was itself not existing; this was later expanded by Sonereal into the IOT player base achieving real political power and proceeding to destroy the world.http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=12980247#post12980247 * Many of the references to the pre-game catastrophe draw inspiration from Philip Reeve's ''Mortal Engines'' novels. For example, the 8 Minute War was based on the 60 Minute War, and "slow bombs" are mentioned in both—though in the IOT they have a completely different meaning. * The Caen meteorite gave rise to a brief community in-joke about France's Meteor. * The song "Africa" by Toto became synonymous with the game after Civ'ed made a joke about the Platonic Military leader Xylon Toto. This was later furthered by a story in one of the updates based on the song. External links * IOT XIV game thread * UN group References Category:Near-future games Category:Post-apocalyptic games Category:Numbered IOTs Category:IOT14